1. Discredit by association. This one is near and dear to me, as it is exactly what Scott Shane of the New York Times did to me. Scott referred to me as the “Alabama blogger”... Scott saw fit to describe me as the “Alabama blogger” to create an image of some redneck in his out house.

2. Wave the magic wand. If there is more than one source for a fact, and the writer has to discredit a fact to make a point, then find one or two people to discredit one source (which may or may not be accurate), wave the magic wand by lumping all the other sources together as “the rest” and then the same discrediting of the one source applies to all the sources...

3. The three paragraph story. Make unsubstantiated charges in the first 3 paragraphs then bury the balancing or even exculpatory evidence two pages away in the 15th paragraph, where most people don’t have time to get to.

4. Discredit by turning it into a joke. The media (especially the Guardian) used this technique with catchy phrases like (paraphrasing) “think you know more than the CIA?” “now you to can play CIA analyst” in articles about the release of Iraqi documents. What they failed to acknowledge is that the CIA did not and could not possibly analyze every document captured in Iraq. This is a very serious matter. Unanalyzed documentation of a brutal, murderous regime is a serious matter. Can you imagine the media saying Simon Wiesenthal was playing Nazi Hunter? This is exactly what Wiesenthal did. He used Nazi documentation to locate and prosecute murderers.

5. The fact sandwich. Mix the reporters conclusions in with the expert’s conclusions to mislead the reader into believing it is all the expert’s conclusions. Find an expert to say A is not true. Then put a statement that B is not true that is not from the expert but is actually the reporter’s conclusion. Then put a statement from the expert that C is not true. Make sure you do this in one paragraph so it is not too obvious in a quick read through. That way it is the reader’s fault if they get the wrong impression.

Stu-6

07-03-2006, 12:12 AM

You know all of the right wing whining about the “liberal” media is really getting sad. It has become a justification for anything and a way of discrediting any unfavorable story, regardless of what the truth maybe.

SWJED

07-03-2006, 03:05 AM

You know all of the right wing whining about the “liberal” media is really getting sad. It has become a justification for anything and a way of discrediting any unfavorable story, regardless of what the truth maybe.

I consider myself somewhere between center and right-of-center in reference to political beliefs.

In prepping the SWJ Daily News Links I read at least portions of 15-20 (some mornings more) MSM news sources. JMHO – but Ray Robison is spot on in regards to the liberal bias of the MSM…

Does the right “report” in a biased manner? Of course, but for the most part the right is confined to “alternate” media forums while the major dailies and magazines are at least partially in the left’s camp – some totally.

Any supposed neutral news source that espouses a view disguised as news is guilty of blatant deception - be it a news source of the right or left. Just so happens the MSM is dominated by left leaning news media… Go figure why some of us are a bit PO’ed about a political IO campaign that runs contrary to actually winning the GWOT.

Strickland

07-04-2006, 02:28 PM

Could someone more well-read than I, please give me their opinion as to which print, television, or web media sources are liberal, moderate, conservative? What does the group believe as the most honest source of information?

SWJED

07-04-2006, 03:06 PM

Could someone more well-read than I, please give me their opinion as to which print, television, or web media sources are liberal, moderate, conservative? What does the group believe as the most honest source of information?

Look at the left margin of the Daily News Links (http://www.smallwarsjournal.com/news/060704.htm) pages - you will find at least a start on the liberal biased sources - there are many...

As for conservative publications in the left side-bar I would include the Washington Times, Wall Street Journal, National Review, Weekly Standard and the London Daily Telegraph. Some like the LA Times, WAPO and others include token columnists with conservative views.

Jugurtha

07-04-2006, 04:45 PM

I once read about a study that stated that conservatives listened/watched/read Fox, WSJ, liberals ABC, et al., and moderates NPR. Go figure.

CPT Holzbach

07-04-2006, 05:10 PM

Ive always found The Economist to be fair. Although they describe themselves as "fiscally conservative" or something like that. Not the same as politically conservative.